Government funding difficulties create gloom for federal workers before Christmas
Johnny Zuagar says he’s tried to hide his worries about a potential government shutdown from his three boys as he weighs how much to spend on Christmas presents
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Johnny Zuagar says he’s tried to hide his worries about a potential government shutdown from his three boys as he weighs how much to spend on Christmas presents.
“I’ve got to keep a poker face,” Zuagar, a statistician at the U.S. Census Bureau, said when thinking about his boys, ages 14, 12 and 6. “You’re just trying to take that worry off of your family.”
Like thousands of federal workers, Zuagar is navigating the holidays with the spirit of the season overtaken by an air of gloom and uncertainty.
The turbulent efforts in Congress to reach an agreement on funding the federal government have cast a cloud over the holidays for many federal workers facing possible furloughs in the days before Christmas. The House on Friday passed a three-month government spending bill just hours before a government shutdown, but its fate in the Senate was uncertain as the deadline loomed.
Many federal workers were already anxious about the possibility of future workforce reductions under the incoming Trump administration.
Zuagar, who is president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2782, which represents federal workers at the census, has lived through unexpected shutdowns before — including right before the holidays.
This time, it comes on the heels of promises from Trump and his allies that there will be sweeping cuts in the federal workforce.
“We really don’t know anymore," Zuagar said during a telephone interview Friday, with hours to go before a midnight deadline to approve a spending measure to avoid furloughs. “Again, the rhetoric out
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